Students for Environmental Action is hosting this year’s Do it in the Dark event, hoping to change Quinnipiac’s grade from a ‘D’ to ‘A’ on The College Sustainability Report Card and beat last year’s event, which saved 23,000 kilowatts of energy in the residence halls.

Do it in the Dark is a three-week energy sustainability competition between the residence halls. Students for Environmental Action tracked and calculated the average energy use in the different residence halls for the past year.

The recorded numbers will stand as a baseline as the event begins, for residence halls to compare with at the end of each week. According to the club members, the idea is that the residence halls will be in competition to decrease their average energy usage.

This year’s event will begin on March 21 and end April 11. The competition will be broken down into brackets and each week’s winners will move on until there is a final winner. The winning residence hall members will all receive T-shirts and have an ice cream party.

“We always try to remember to shut off the hall lights in Irma, but I’m sure our hall will have fun coming together to find more eco-friendly solutions,” Irma resident Jessica Jankowski said.

During last year’s competition, Quinnipiac students saved 23,000 kilowatts of energy in the residence halls. This number is enough to power Ledges’ energy demands for one week, Irma for one month and Complex for two months.

Students for Environmental Action hopes to teach students on campus to slowly change their habits to help make a change in the environment. By the time students graduate, the group hopes students will be able to share these new sustainability habits with their friends and families.

“College is one of your last chances to educate people before they go off and do their own thing so one of the things they should learn is the impact that they have on their environment and how they can change it,” junior executive member Amelia Houghton said.

Houghton believes that if students learn now how to do simple tasks such as shutting off the lights and television when they leave their room, and not leaving the water on all the time, they will create new and improved habits.

Houghton and other group members said students may think that the university is trying to save money through sustainability, but in reality the sustainability on this campus is through students and professors who are truly concerned about the impact on the environment.

“My biggest hope is just that people see that it is important and that they are not making this choice because they want to save money but because they know it’s the right thing and they want to keep doing it for the rest of their lives,” Houghton said.

The College Sustainability Report Card gave Quinnipiac University an average of a ‘D’ last year. This is the same letter grade that the university received in 2009 when the report card was first introduced.

“I’m not one to be crazy about environmental sustainability, but to hear our university received a D upsets me,” freshman Sarah Johnson said.

The kick-off party for the event will take place April 4  on Mount Carmel campus, and April 5 on the York Hill campus. The kick-off will consist of free food, music and games.

Visit quchronicle.com for more information on the amount of energy each Quinnipiac resident hall uses.